BVU Student Wins Three Merit Awards in Regional Theatre Competition

BVU Student Wins Three Merit Awards in Regional Theatre Competition

Tyler Klobassa and David Walker, on the ''Little Shop of Horrors'' stage.

Jan. 25, 2013

The Buena Vista University Theatre has been awarded three certificate of merit awards by the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Region 5 Festival held Jan. 20-26 in Lincoln, Neb.

Tyler Klobassa, a junior computer science/information technology major from Nashua, won the following awards for his work in BVU Theatre productions this academic year in 2012:

Excellence in Lighting Design for Doubt

Excellence in Lighting Design for Little Shop of Horrors

Excellence in Stage Management for Little Shop of Horrors

David Walker, assistant professor of theatre and coordinator of technical production and staging, says, “There are students who come into the theatre and you know very quickly if they ‘get it.’ Ty gets it big time. He sees theatre with an eye of wonder tempered with working technical knowledge but is also brash enough to try something new. He is a self-starter, a team player, and highly motivated to succeed. I have faith in his skills and am proud of his successes not only as a theatre ‘techie’ but also as a computer science major.”

“These awards came at me as a surprise,” says Tyler. “When creating a lighting design, which I have now done three times at BVU, I am always trying to visualize what Professor Walker is telling me the set will look like. I will work for hours completing the design but never being fully satisfied with it. For Doubt I spent a week of my time just creating the garden light, which was approximately a fourth of the area covered on stage. For Little Shop of Horrors I continued to change my design up until the final night of the show.”

“I had never been a stage manager before Little Shop of Horrors, so that was a new experience to me,” he adds. “It is something that I look forward to doing again.”

“During high school I worked with lights and running the lighting control board, but I never did anything there to this extent,” adds Tyler. “Being at BV and under these amazing professors I have learned so much. In the future I hope to continue creating designs for lighting here at BV and hopefully someday even in a community theatre setting.”

In designing the lighting for the BVU performances, Tyler used an app on his iPad that allowed him to control all of the lighting channels from anywhere in Anderson Auditorium, where the plays are performed. “Using the iPad allowed me to work by myself on a design and not have to run around bringing up lights. In the past, we needed two people, one in the catwalks and the other at the lighting board in the control booth. This app allows us to be in the catwalks or just walk across the stage and use the iPad to adjust the lights or run through cues. We can be away from the lighting board and proactively alter a scene as it is happening.” During the performances, Tyler operated the lighting from a computer control board in the control room

Region 5 includes colleges in Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri.